1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to rolled tissue dispensing apparatus and, more particularly, to apparatus to accessing lost tails of rolled tissue product from within rolled tissue dispensers.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
There are a variety of tissue dispensers known in the prior art. Some of such dispensers mount to a wall with the spindle which supports the roll of tissue parallel to the wall on which the dispenser is mounted whereas others mount such that the spindle is perpendicular to the wall on which the dispenser is mounted. Many of such dispensers which are designed for commercial use are substantially completely enclosed such that the tail is accessed through an opening in the bottom of the dispenser. A common problem with such an enclosed-type dispenser is that if the tissue breaks prematurely, there is no tail presented to the user to further access the roll. The user typically must reach beneath the dispenser and up through the dispensing port to begin blindly rotating the roll in hopes of finding the tail.
There are similar problems encountered with no-touch rolled paper towel dispensers. In such no-touch rolled towel dispensers, the user grasps the tail and pulls. Typically, such dispensers are provided with a hand wheel to overcome the loss of tail problem. Such hand wheel can be used to manually drive the drum across which the paper is taken within the dispenser to thereby provide access to the user. Such hand wheel is always engaged and continually provides a drag force which must be overcome when extracting the paper from the dispenser.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,317,099 to Solomon, teaches a dispenser for rolled products which includes a hand wheel. In the Solomon dispenser, the hand wheel is connected directly to the support spindle on which the rolled product is mounted such that by rotating the hand wheel, the rolled product is also rotated.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,385 to Bell, teaches a dispensing apparatus for dispensing rolled products such as paper towels. The dispenser is adapted to be placed on a horizontal surface such that the axis of rotation of the rolled product is perpendicular to the horizontal surface on which the dispenser rests. A gripping means is provided at the top of the dispenser. Such gripping means is spring loaded such that it is normally not engaged with the edge of the rolled product. The user grasps the tail extending from a vertical slot in the dispenser and, once having extracted the desired length, presses down on the gripping means to prevent further rotation of the rolled towel product such that the tail can be torn off for use.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,677 to Ootaki, et al., teaches a toilet paper dispenser which contains two rolls of toilet tissue. When the toilet paper on the first roll is exhausted, a handle is pushed which automatically ejects the spent toilet roll shaft and simultaneously mounts the replacement roll for use.